At FSB, the international trade fair for amenity areas, sports and pool facilities recently held in Cologne, RadiciGroup introduced Radigreen® MFL PA, its new polyamide (nylon) yarn for the manufacture of synthetic turf for sports applications. Radigreen® MFL PA provides better overall performance than traditional polyethylene and polyolefin yarns.
Presently, Tessiture Pietro Radici (TPR) has three types of polyamide yarn on the market under the RADIGREEN® MFL PA brand name.
A very thin textured monofilament (500 den), woven with a tight weft to make hard resistant turf used mostly for golf courses, which require a carpet-like surface. The main market for this product has been the USA, with a demand of over 3,000 tons/year.
A textured monofilament woven together with straight (non-textured polyethylene) yarn to form the so-called “thatch layer”. The great volume of the thatch layer allows you to reduce the infill needed for the synthetic layer. Besides this advantage, textured polyamide yarn forms a soft carpet-like layer that contributes to reducing the friction factor for athletes. Moreover, since textured yarn “takes root” into the infill, it helps to prevent the latter from hardening and becoming rigid. All these features make this type of yarn suitable for contact sports.
Finally, a straight (non-textured) monofilament used mainly for landscaping turf and indoor/outdoor flooring in the residential and hotel sectors. Special formulas have been developed and fine-tuned by our R&D team to reduce the polyamide friction factor and achieve the perfect balance between softness and resilience of the yarn.
In order to meet the needs of the steadily growing synthetic turf market, RadiciGroup has decided to reinforce its commitment to this industry by making new investments in plant capacity at Tessiture Pietro Radici (TPR). Therefore, a new production line for either polyethylene or nylon monofilament artificial grass yarn is scheduled to start up in 2008. This investment will allow TPR to expand its overall production capacity by 35% and double its monofilament capacity.
Behind this plant expansion is the boom in demand for monofilament grass football pitches: 80% of newly installed synthetic turf football pitches are of this type. RadiciGroup — with 20% of European and about 10% of world market share in artificial grass yarn, on top of a long history of acclaimed know-how in the sector — is thus increasing its capacity to meet the new needs of its customers.
At FSB, the international trade fair for amenity areas, sports and pool facilities recently held in Cologne,